SGA’s changes to voting proved commendable even with obvious flaws

OUR VIEW: The Student Government Association adds GPA and community service requirements to homecoming nominee process, but leaves it up to a Homecoming Committee of SGA members.

Last year’s homecoming week was drenched in controversy when students claimed the voting was tampered with. People supposedly made homecoming into a big joke by fishing for votes and stealing people’s M-numbers to vote for friends. Now, current students are being punished for their actions despite no real investigation taking place.

Tuesday, the Student Government Association members presented a by-law proposal for future homecoming elections.

According to the proposal, the election process will begin five weeks before homecoming. In week one, SGA will hold a general information meeting for anyone interested in taking part in homecoming. At this time, nominations for homecoming will be open to all classifications, but with some adjustments.

“In order for a nomination to be valid, a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.25 is required for sophomore through senior class positions,” the bylaws state. “Freshmen will have no GPA requirement. Homecoming king and queen must hold a cumulative GPA of 2.5.”

To add to the requirement, king and queen nominations must show characteristics of leadership through organizations on campus or off campus and community service. Having a GPA requirement is a great standard to add to the homecoming process. This will definitely ensure that not every nominee will be a member of Greek life. This might also help with homecoming being a popularity contest, but a ranking letter of recommendation is questionable

What makes a good letter of recommendation anyway?

In week two, voting will begin amongst the top four women and top four men from each class receiving the greatest number of nominating votes, which is a minimum of three nominations. On the Friday of week two, nominees are required to attend a meeting to inform them of election rules and process.

“During week three, nominees may sign up for a meet and greet booth so that students will have the opportunity to meet their candidates,” the bylaws stated. “Elections will being at 5 p.m. on Friday of week three and will last through 5 p.m. on Wednesday of week four.”

Having a meet and greet booth with those nominated is another plus for this new election system.

In previous years, nominees had the opportunity to post a brief biography next to their name when voting. Yet, not everyone participated in this so it left those who didn’t at a disadvantage.

The proposal also suggests that all students can vote for any candidate, despite classification.

The Homecoming Committee will then evaluate the remaining criteria during week four, and a winner will be selected after tallying all results, including voting.

The Homecoming Committee will be selecting homecoming nominations, for freshman, sophomores and juniors, off of a point system based on the number of community service hours and letter recommendation forms. King and queen nominees will be evaluated for their campus involvement.

“The Homecoming Committee will evaluate all king and queen candidates for their service to campus organizations and will be judged on membership, and whether or not they held an office,” the bylaws stated. “The Homecoming committee will award anywhere from 3-10 points to each candidate based on their evaluation in this category.”

It’s clear that homecoming is never going to be what it used to be.

SGA officials are trying to restore faith in the process, which is commendable. Yet, there are obvious holes in this plan.

What if a member of SGA, which is likely, gets nominated for homecoming king or queen? How can we trust that they won’t just vote for fellow SGA members?

Thankfully, there will be an appeals process.

Also, the main problem with homecoming voting is the stealing of student ID numbers that are required to vote. Before the ByLaws Committee and the Senate vote on this prospoal after spring break, we suggest that they consider having a central location, possibly in the Clark Student Center, for voting to take place.

From a positive side, students finally get involved and care about the university, even though it was not quite understood what homecoming is about but competition, the results showed teamwork and determination, two useful and qualitative abilities fitting to a homecoming king and queen.